News

Fox Chase Cancer Center's Sigurdson Promoted to Senior Member

PHILADELPHIA (November 29, 2000) -- Dr. Elin R. Sigurdson of Richboro, Pa., has been promoted to senior member in the division of medical science at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Sigurdson, a surgical oncologist specializing in colorectal cancer, liver cancer and breast disease, joined the Center's surgical oncology department in 1992 as director of surgical research.

She is a pioneer in the use of sentinel lymph-node biopsy for breast cancer, which spares breast cancer patients unnecessary removal of lymph nodes. Also successful for melanoma, this procedure allows surgeons to identify the first, or sentinel, lymph nodes and determine whether the cancer has spread to them. If the sentinel nodes are cancer-free, no other lymph nodes need to be removed, so patients avoid more surgery and possible complications such as lymphedema.

Sigurdson is course director for continuing medical education courses in sentinel-node mapping in breast cancer and melanoma. She is currently planning a clinical course on liver surgery with intraoperative ultrasound and radiofrequency ablation for primary and metastatic liver cancer.

The author or co-author of several book chapters on the treatment of colorectal and liver cancers, Sigurdson has published numerous papers on cancers of the breast, colon and liver. She is a member of the liver cancer committee for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

She has served for three years on the executive council of the Society of Surgical Oncology. She is also the surgical co-chair for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and for the gastrointestinal group of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group.

Born in Ontario, Canada, Sigurdson earned her medical degree at the University of Toronto in Ontario and her Ph.D. in organometallic chemistry at the Imperial College of the University of London in England. After her internship and residency at the University of Toronto, she completed a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and remained on the staff there from 1984 to 1992. Board-certified by the Royal College of Surgeons (Canada) and the American Board of Surgery, Sigurdson is an associate professor of surgery at Temple University Medical School in addition to her role at Fox Chase.

Fox Chase Cancer Center, one of the nation's first comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute in 1974, conducts basic and clinical research; programs of prevention, detection and treatment of cancer; and community outreach. For more information about Fox Chase activities, visit the Center's web site at www.fccc.edu.

Fox Chase Cancer Center, part of the Temple University Health System, is one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States. Founded in 1904 in Philadelphia as one of the nation’s first cancer hospitals, Fox Chase was also among the first institutions to be designated a National Cancer Institute Comprehensive Cancer Center in 1974. Fox Chase researchers have won the highest awards in their fields, including two Nobel Prizes. Fox Chase physicians are also routinely recognized in national rankings, and the Center’s nursing program has received the Magnet recognition for excellence four consecutive times. Today, Fox Chase conducts a broad array of nationally competitive basic, translational, and clinical research, with special programs in cancer prevention, detection, survivorship, and community outreach. For more information, call 1-888-FOX CHASE or (1-888-369-2427).

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